Ritual Murder Has U.K. Cops Baffled

AUDREY WOODS

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, January 28, 2002

Associated Press Writer

The body of a boy found floating in the River Thames was dismembered in a way that is consistent with ritual murder, an expert said Tuesday as police appealed to the public for information about the child.

The torso of the boy, believed to be 5 to 7 years old and of African origin, was found Sept. 21 near London's Tower Bridge. The body was in orange shorts and had been in the water for up to 10 days.

Police efforts to identify the boy, whom they call Adam, have failed. A reward of $72,500 has been offered for information leading to conviction of his killer.

Dr. Hendrik Scholtz, a South African expert in ritualistic murders who was asked to take part in a second autopsy, said the boy's body bore all the hallmarks of a ritualistic death.

"It is my opinion that the nature of the discovery of the body, features of the external examination including the nature of the wounds, clothing and mechanism of death are consistent with those of a ritual homicide as practiced in Africa," Sholtz told a news conference.

Police said they are now looking at whether the killing was part of a ritualistic murder. They also are considering a pedophile killing, a domestic death and other possibilities.

Scholtz said human sacrifice would be staged by a few people in the belief that they would obtain supernatural powers and then be successful in something like business or politics. He spoke at the National Police Training Center in Bramshill, southern England.

Experts had said the boy was around 5. But Scholtz said he thought the boy was probably nearer 7, and the fact that he'd been circumcised may have some relevance. In South Africa, he said, boys are not normally circumcised until age 18, but in other areas of Africa, including West Africa, circumcision is often done much earlier.

Police discovered seven half-burned candles wrapped in a white sheet washed up on the southern shore of the Thames in London. The name Adekoye Jo Fola Adeoye was written on the sheet and the name Fola Adeoye was inscribed on the candles.

Detective Inspector Will O'Reilly told reporters that the name on the sheet was common in Nigeria's Yoruba area, but so far they had not been able to trace anyone of that name in Britain. The sheet and candles have not been positively linked with the death, detectives said.

Police said they have been in close communication with detectives in Germany and Belgium, where three similar cases involving the killings of children whose bodies were disposed of in flowing water have been reported.